Seven's Dwarf Diecasts

text: Robert Duban & Matt Alt, graphics: Robert Duban

September 2001

Updated: 11.01.04

Seven was a spin-off of toy-giant Takara, founded with the aim of producing
cheap toys for the low-end market. The practice of larger firms protecting
their reputations by using a "middleman" to sell cheapie toys was a common
one in the '70s and early '80s. Popy had their own cheapie toy offshoot
company, Victora;
Takatoku
jointly produced "mini gokins" with the tiny
company Mark; and Takara and
Clover
used tiny Seven to do their bidding.
Most of Takara's early licenses were replicated in a smaller and cheaper
form by Seven. In fact, the only Takara license that doesn't seem to have a
Seven toy counterpart is that of "Kotetsu Jeeg." Perhaps there simply wasn't
any need, as a "cheapie"
mini Jeeg
had already been produced by the
miniscule toy company Onda. Seven made a minor foray into the world of
vinyls with a rendition of Ga-Keen, packaged in the "Ga-Keen Koma Set," several vinyls
from Baratak, and no doubt others.
Surprisingly, Seven produced at least one "Star Wars" toy as well, thanks to
Takara having a limited Japanese license for the smash-hit film.
Seven also produced toys based on licenses from Clover. There are Seven
versions of characters from each of Clover's licenses -- with one exception.
There does not seem to be a Seven Srungle toy, and the world will forever
bemoan that loss. The boxes for the Seven Gundam toys bear a great deal of
similarity to some of Clover's own
mini-Gundams. In fact, at a glance, the
boxes look nearly identical. (This isn't particularly surprising, as Clover
and Takara shared the same factories and much of the same design-staff.)
Often labeled "mini gokin," Seven's toys have a great deal in common with
the later Victora pieces in terms of market, quality level and box-style.
The majority of the Seven pieces were sold under the brand name "Orion."
Most of the boxes bearing the eye-catching Orion logo feature the fine print
"manufactured and sold by Seven." Some of the later Seven toys (most
notably, those from Votoms and Dunbine) feature an actual logo for "Seven,"
rather than simple plain text. Muddying the waters even further, there are
several box variations as well -- some boxes feature the "Seven" logo,
while the same toy can also be found in an "Orion" logo box. (These are
detailed in the list below.)
The quality level of Seven's toys varies a great deal from piece to piece.
For example, the Dunbine toys, while made of rather cheap plastic, are
rather decent renditions of the characters. In contrast, the Dougram "Core
Brook" toy (a mis-romanization of the words "Core Block") is quite possibly
the sleaziest, cheapest Japanese toy ever made. It can be said, however, that
perhaps therein lies the charm of these "low end" toys.
Based on the dates of the shows Seven licensed, it would seem that the
company was active between the years of 1977 to 1983. Nobody knows exactly
what became of Seven, but presumably they fell victim to the great
toy-meltdown of the mid-1980's. What follows is a list of some of the
better-known Seven / Orion toys. This list is by no means complete. As
always, please contact us for any errors or omissions.